Double Trouble
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Author Barbara Angell tells Katrina Fox why she’s fascinated by actress Coral Browne.
Lesbians and gay men alike love Coral Browne. The Australian actress who died in 1991 was “ultra-glamorous, had a razor wit and was the friend of and often slept with the most important people in theatre”, according to biographer Barbara Angell.
Browne and her husband Vincent Price (the star of many a camp Hammer Horror movie) were both bisexual and shared an open marriage for more than 20 years.
“I hadn’t realised how sexually promiscuous she was,” Angell says. “How she managed to fit everyone in with her career is a matter for the Guinness Book of Records.
During a pre-London tour, Coral walked into the star dressing room and there was this filthy, moth-eaten couch which she immediately demanded should be replaced with a new one: ‘You can’t expect a lady to get herself fucked on that!’ I was fascinated to know why such a glamorous and elegant woman needed to colour her conversations with obscenities. In those days to use such words in public was an indictable offence.”
Born in 1934, Browne is perhaps best known for her role in the 1968 film, The Killing of Sister George, in which she plays predatory lesbian Mercy Croft, and her sex scene with Susannah York at the time was considered highly controversial. During her career, Browne won numerous awards for her work in Europe and the US.
While Angell says she and Browne are like “chalk and cheese” in terms of personality traits, they both share a background in performing. Angell is acknowledged as Australia’s first female TV comedy writer-performer and made headlines in the late 1960s as a sex symbol in The Mavis Bramston Show – although she was living a double life.
“The ‘sex symbol’ thing made good copy in TV Week and the other zines and the studio liked it so I went along with it,” she says. “But homophobia was so rife that I’d have been out on my tushy in two seconds if they’d known I was gay.
My work colleagues, family and closest friends knew, and were discreet, but I never brought that side of life to work and in fact I became celibate during my whole contracted time with Bramston – except for a couple of short flings with blokes (been there, done that, moved on). My gayness was therefore not too much of an issue, but it was a strain pretending.”
Angell, who’s been with her female partner of 38 years, spends most of her time nowadays teaching screenwriting but she still does the occasional acting gig (her last appearance was in Love My Way). When asked if any current actors remind her of Browne, she says, “No way.
These days there’s not the glamour, the poise, the savoir faire or the sheer ‘bugger-everyone’ attitude. Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman have some of the style and poise but times have changed.
In Coral’s day the glamour-mask was never removed: staying glamorous was a full-time occupation and part of being an ‘actress’. With her wharfie language combined with the glamour, Coral Browne was a one-off.”
The Coral Browne Story is available at The Bookshop, Darlinghurst, or online at angellpro.com.au/coralbrowne.htm for $35.00.
Comments (1)
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written by Barbara Angell , 29 February, 2008
Thanks for the article, guys, but there's an important typo. Coral Browne was born in 1913, not 1934. She went to London in 1934 as a twenty-first birthday present from her Dad. With her, she had her return fare to Australia, but didn't have to use it because she got theatre work within a month of arriving in England.